


Whiskey Eyes on Fire

by Sheanio



Series: A Tattoo for Me and All My Friends [2]
Category: Seduce Me (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Eventual Smut, F/M, Graphic Depictions of Violence for later chapters, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson - Freeform, Slow Burn, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-27
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-09-27 05:05:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9970283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheanio/pseuds/Sheanio
Summary: Mika Anderson was born without a soulmate mark. As such she tries to keep to herself when possible and is grateful her friends don't push her to show hers off the way others do, she was grateful simply going through life, excelling in school and hanging with her friends on the weekends when one fateful day her beloved grandfather passes. In his will, he left her the family estate, which her father immediately has her move there. However, once she gets there, she finds the place already broken into by a band of boys severely injured and bleeding over everything. Against some portions of her better judgments she allows them to stay, however as they are incubi eventually someone will be naked and she's hoping it's not her.At least not yet.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The only thing that belongs to me is the alternate universe, all characters belong to [Michaela Laws](http://www.michaelaamandalaws.com/). This work is not being used to generate any profit and is for public consumption. I reserve the right to have this posted with this disclaimer unless Michaela Laws requests otherwise. This fan-fiction is a fanwork. Please don't sue.
> 
> Authors' notes: Well! First chapter is out! And let me tell you, I could probably have included some of this in the previous installment but oh well. This is also a lot longer than what I'd thought it be and i'm only a little sorry. Again, portions of the text is from the game, however I tried to keep it realistic and so there will be parts added, some removed, and some moved around. The final product will still have a good ending, however getting there will probably be different. As for the Slow Burn tag up there lets be honest. This entire story takes place in less than 7 days there is no way that any lasting relationship (one that grows into a 2 year long thing and marriage) can be created from a whirlwind of small romantic gestures and such without some heavy fantasizing and idealizing on both parties parts so. Once the story's complete the real one will start. c:

The door creaked open, and almost immediately Mika clenched her muscles taught to keep her from slamming the door shut. A metal copper scent slammed her in the face, and the lights were on, and she could see splashes of blood everywhere, and bodies and she quickly closed her eyes to keep from imprinting this image already seared into her retinas from staying any longer than necessary. She quickly closed the door behind her and fumbled for her phone forcing her eyes not to pay attention to the pool of blood growing larger and closer to her, fingers slipping in her panic to call the authorities, the police, someone, about this when she heard one of the bodies groan.

Instantly she was frozen; she’d seen horror movies, she knows that that sound means either the body isn’t dead or it is and is still moving, Night of the Living Dead style. Quietly she prayed that it was the former and let her eyes drag over to the bodies, one with brown hair trying to get up. She stood frozen, hunched over her phone and she could almost feel her mind drift out of her body as he stood up and glared at her.

“You, woman.” Zombies don’t talk, so that means he’s alive. “You’re going to let me kiss you.” Mika blinked in confusion, before blinking or saying a word he was in front of her, gripping her chin and tilting her head up for a brief second a forceful telling off danced on the tip of her tongue before she met his eyes.

“Uh…huh… Okay.” She nodded, her mind soothing as his green eyes met hers. Mika wondered why she’d been so against it; it wasn’t like it was something major, it was just a kiss. Before she could continue that mental line of questioning the boy leaned in and kissed her, it was dry, and while her body felt warm at the contact, it felt more akin to a feverish warmth, one where the environment would suck the heat from a person. A voice spoke to one side, but her mind was too fuzzy to fully understand what was said.

A grumble from the person kissing her – her hands itched to rest on his chest, slide up into his hair and tug – and he pulled away, the itch fading just as quickly and her mind becoming her own once more. Her face heated as the realization of what she did, of what she wanted to do, came back to her and she turned her eyes to the ground. She could only see the other bodies stir, so they weren’t dead at least, and a few stood up while a second pulled the guy away from her, Sam she vaguely remembers hearing that name, was he the one that kissed her or the one that pulled the kisser away?

She let her eyes flick up to the speakers’ and made eye-contact with him, he tried to smile it off by apologizing first, but she interrupted him.

“What are you doing in my house?” She almost shouted at them.

The tallest one answered her. “Your house? I apologize, miss; we weren’t aware this home had an owner, and, wounded as we are, didn’t have the time to take that into consideration.”

“The doors were locked, though?” She gestured back behind her to the door.

“Yes, however, the windows weren’t.” His mouth quirked up in a grin for a moment before settling back to neutrality. “I apologize for breaking into your home; we honestly were not aware this house had an owner, we simply needed a place to hide for a while.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Mika muttered, looking back to the blood on the floor. And walls apparently, now that she’s taking stock of the room. And on the furniture as well.

“Yes…” he tried to laugh it off again. However, Mika guessed that from the expression on her face such a thing wasn’t going to work.

“So why did you need to hide? And who are you?”

“Well,” He started. “Our names are James,” Gestured to himself. “Erik,” To one of the redheads beside him. “Sam,” The one that kissed her, she felt her cheeks heat up again, Erik seemed amused by it. “Matthew,” She looked to a happy looking kid with fluffy black hair and bright blue eyes, and he greeted her with an equally bright smile. “And Damien.” The other redhead, nodded to her.

“…Alright, so those are your names, but why are you here.” Mika folded her arms over her chest, looking back to James skeptically.

“Well,” James paused, looking to the others for a moment before turning back to her. “Simply put, we’re being chased. A person who wishes us harm caught up with us and… Well.” He gestured to the blood in the room. “You can see the results.”

“Yeah, how are you not dead from that? It looks like a lot of blood. Should I be calling the police anyway? Do you need medical help?”

Erik spoke up this time, “The only help we need, Princess, is your energy.” He winked at her, Sam rolled his eyes and out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw Matthew make a gagging motion to Damien.

Mika paused a moment, looking at him in confusion before turning back to James. “Anyway, do you need actual medical help?”

James chuckled and shook his head. “No, we'll be all right, miss nothing we can’t handle.”

“Well, I feel great,” Sam said, grinning widely at his brothers.

“That’s because you used your abilities on her.” James sighed, gently squeezing the bridge of his nose.

“…Abilities?” Mika asked. The boys froze momentarily, looking to James and then to Damien who made some facial expression she couldn’t understand and then back to James. Erik told Sam off for doing that while James stepped forward to address her question. Mika made an internal note to deal with that later when there wasn’t the pressing matter of what the actual fuck these men are probably insane.

Erik frowned at Sam once more before turning his attention to Mika, pleasant smile returning to his face. “Well, lovely lady, it is truly hard to explain… You see we’re not exactly normal.” He trailed off as though that answered her question perfectly, however when he saw her confused expression he looked to James.

“…I suppose it would come out eventually.” He muttered, crossing his arms and glaring at the other boy. “The first thing you need to know about us is that we’re all brothers.” Mika looked back at them again at this, from the get-go they looked almost nothing alike, but with this new knowledge she could pick up on pieces. Damien and Matthew had the same eye shape, James and Sam had similar noses, Erik and Damien’s hair color. She looked back to James who had kindly allowed her to inspect them again before continuing. “We are brothers, and… We’re incubi.”

“…Incubi. Like what, the sex demons?” She had to let out a giggle, how absurd were these guys? She wondered if she still shouldn’t call 911 and ask for some people from the mental ward as well. Damien only shook his head at her words; the others were letting James handle this, bickering amongst themselves about Sam’s disgraceful behavior, as Erik referred to it.

Matthew laughed and nodded his agreement while James spoke.

“Yes. Precisely so. We consume and use sexual energy to survive.” Mika shifted her weight to one foot while James looked imploringly to Damien. The other boys muttered to themselves about her silence.

“Hello?” Sam asked, “Did you hear him?”

“Do you think she’s still processing it…?” Matthew muttered to no one in particular.

“Yes,” James stated. “And she’ll understand right about-“

“…I’m going to call the authorities and request they send some people from the mental ward,” Mika muttered, reaching back to her phone before Matthew stopped her, gripping her wrist to hold it down with a strength very surprising for someone his size.

“No, we’re telling the truth!” He looked up at her, less than an inch shorter than her. “Come on, what’ll it take for you to believe us?”

“I’ll believe you’re incubuses-“

“Incubi, miss,” James corrected her. “The plural is incubi.”

Mika looked into his eyes a moment longer before continuing, “I’ll believe you when you prove it.”

“Pardon me?”

“Prove it.” She repeated herself, this time gaining the attention of all five boys and almost instantly regretting doing so.

“…Fair enough, Erik, if you wouldn’t mind?” James said, stepping back as the boy stepped forward on his right with a pleasant smile.

“Of course, not.” He said, turning his gaze to Mika, his eyes glittering almost predatorily. He stepped closer to her, and she could feel her heart speed up in her chest, and suddenly everything smoothed out. Erik slid a hand under her chin, lightly tipping her head up to look at him while his other ran through her hair. “My darling, you’re so tempting with your non-belief… Allow me to prove who I am with a tender kiss. I promise that you’ll enjoy every minute of it…” His eyes flashed with mischief as he leaned closer. “And maybe, you’ll even want more.” He whispered against her lips before connecting them.

Almost instantly her mind was floating; it had already been on the verge of questioning itself again, as it did with Sam and her eyes drifted shut even as the warm feeling swept over her body. Mika’s heart pounded in her chest and again that same feeling of draining, of her heat being taken from her, came to her as they kissed. They stayed connected a while longer before James cleared his throat, a signal for Erik to pull away with a groan. “Aww…” He let out a sigh as he pouted. “Very well. Thank you,” He turned to Mika, still red in the face and a look of astonishment across her features. “I feel so much better.” He stepped back away from her while Damien looked at her with a bit of worry.

“Does that provide the proof you were looking for?” James asked.

“I… I think I’m…” Mika said breathily, James furrowed his brows in confusion for a moment before rushing to her side. Mika’s knees giving out beneath her and seeing her tip forward onto the tile, thankfully he caught her before she fell face first, and it was evident that she’d fainted.

“Shit,” Sam muttered, watching as James picked her up bridal style.

“We should probably get her to bed…” Matthew said, worry on his face.

“Indeed…” James agreed, walking with Erik as Matthew, Damien, and Sam split off. “Why don’t you get to cleaning the lobby, it’s… Something of a mess.” He said, looking back to the drying blood on the floor, now streaked around from their movement. James ignored the groans and curses from his younger siblings as they set to work on that.

He glanced at the girls’ clothes, grateful that there were no visible blood stains on them. He could feel his wounds closing, though judging from the spring in Erik’s step he was already completely okay. “She has a lot of energy,” Erik said, stepping closer to look at her sleeping face.

“Does she now?” James said idly, not paying much attention. He maneuvered her in his arms, opening room after room as Erik talked and helped him out as well.

“Over here,” Erik finally called over, this was their eighth room – not that anyone was counting, mind – and while the girl weighed almost nothing to an incubus with supernatural strength, this particular incubus was severely wounded.

He hoped Matthew was making something below. He and Erik placed the girl on the bed, and it was only when James shut the door behind him that Erik’s face sobered.

“I know,” James said. “As a human, she’ll have a soul-mark.” His eyes weren’t focused on anything, walking back to the lobby to see if any of his brothers were still there. “Since our human appearance is only a glamor we don’t have that mark.”

Erik frowned, “She already knows we’re incubi. She’ll ask if we have them as well at some point.”

James nodded again, pausing to think. She could get curious and ask, at which point they’d tell her. However, he couldn’t predict how she’d react. Would she be frightened by the idea? Disgusted? Would their lack of a mark disgust her? Confuse her even more? Erik must have seen the thoughts across James’ face, “Well. I suppose we will handle that when it happens.”

They turned into the lobby balcony where only Damien remained, looking at the bags James could only guess the girl had brought with her.

“Damien,” Erik called out. “Are those the Princess’?”

“Yes, I was thinking about bringing them up to her room,” James remembered the path they took, knowing Damien would see it and take the shortest route there.

“Sounds good, do you know where Sam and Matthew went?”

“They said something about finding where the humans stash their knives.”

Sometimes James couldn’t tell when Damien was joking and when he was serious.

“That was a joke.” Damien helpfully said, reading his brother's mild concern.

“What is the real concern is that I couldn’t tell that it was a joke, to begin with.” James chuckled, nodding his thanks to his brother and leaving in the direction Damien had gestured to.

James didn’t have to look for long the sound of his brother's bickering could be heard clear across the castle back home. “Sam! Matthew!” he called, bursting into the kitchen to find the pair wrestling each other in a battle for food.

“Matthew’s the one that started it!”

“I’ll finish it too if you don’t let go!!”

“I’d like to see you try, pipsqueak!” Sam shifted his weight and the careful balance they had held themselves in toppled, Matthew landing chest fist against the hard tile floor with Sam digging his elbow into his back.

“Enough!” James said again, leaning down to grab Sam and pull him off, Matthew.

“Hey!” Sam shouted, scrabbling at James’ hand to make him let go.

“We are brothers; we need to act like it.” He looked at the pair of them. “Now what happened.”

“I was trying to make some food,” Matthew started “When Sam came over and tried to take the knife out of my hand.” He glared at his brother for good measure. “I told him to bother someone else, and he pulled the knife out of my hand, you basically walked in maybe five minutes later.”

Sam clicked his tongue in annoyance and James turned his gaze to his other brother. “Since you seem to believe otherwise let us hear your side.”

“Fine.” He grumbled, “Matthew was doing something, so I go over to see what it was, and he tells me to fuck off, so I tell him to fuck off instead and he fucking elbows me, so I grab his arm and yea.” His gaze never met James. “That’s what happened.”

James frowned at them both and sighed. “I know nerves are frayed at the moment, but we can’t be jumping at each others’ throats just now. Sam.” He turned and stared at Sam until the other met his gaze. “You shouldn’t have been so ready to pounce at the first sign of provocation.”

“Yeah,” Matthew added and immediately quieted and shrank into himself when James turned to him.

“And you should have remembered that this is Sam we’re talking about and he tends to behave on impulse.” James looked back at Sam, “Though it doesn’t give him an excuse it does explain his actions.”

The pair of them nodded, Matthew too tired to argue back and Sam realizing that he might have been overzealous in his reaction to his brothers’ brush off.

“Now let's make dinner, I am rather hungry, and I am confident that our hostess will be once she wakes up. It is the least we can do after invading her home and causing such a mess for her to her first time here.” James rolled up his sleeves while Matthew turned back to slicing vegetables.

“I wonder what she likes…” Matthew muttered, Sam meanwhile leaned against the side of the kitchen watching them for a moment before waving off and stepping out.

“I’mma go out to the dining room.” He called out, moments later Erik walked in, looking behind him at Sam’s retreating back.

“Erik,” James said, pulling pans out of the various cupboards. In his head he was already creating a different organizational method for these that would efficiently house all the cookware and make it easier for the users to find what they need, the pans need to be together organized by use, same for the pots, the various strainers need to be rearranged and the single-use pieces need to be reallocated, and- James shook his head. If he thought too hard he wouldn’t get anything done, just mentally mapping this kitchen to each speck of dust around the corners of the shelves.

“Making dinner are we?” He asked, sidling up to James and taking one of the sauce pans. “Here, I’ll help.” Erik turned to Matthew noting the veggies and meats already prepped and nodded. “Since we do not know what she likes, how about we make a lot of different dishes?”

“Who said that this was for her?” Matthew asked. The words sounded harsh, but the smile the brothers could hear in his voice gave away his teasing.

“That is why we are making dinner, yes?” Erik went to the pantry to pull out various objects and spices along with a second pan and went back to the stove, placing the items down on the counter space beside it. “It is what I would do, after all. James, could you get the wine? Red and White, if you don’t mind.”

Soon the air was thick with different smells of ranging palettes of food from all around the world. More than once they had to chase Sam off from stealing tastes of the plates as they finished. “Sam,” James finally said after the fifth time they smacked his hand away. “Why don’t you go see if our hostess is up and around yet?”

“I believe Damien is with her.” Erik piped up from in front of the stove, a sizzling steak searing on a pan in front of him. He paused to slide it into the oven and continued while setting its timer. “He took up her bags from the lobby to her room; I’d guess he waited there for her to wake up.” James let out a noise of acknowledgment, Sam just lets out a huff of air and stomped outside. Matthew finished putting the finishing touches on the dessert he’d been slotted to make and slipped it into the refrigerator to chill.

“I’ll go check anyway, can’t hurt after all!” He smiled at the pair of them, receiving Erik’s blessing and immediately ignoring it and left.

Once it was only Erik and James present James began pulling out serving plates, sliding the servings of food onto them and plating an initial course for everyone. “Sam,” He called out into the dining room. “Come help set the table.” He heard a grumble and knew Sam had heard and was coming to help, James set a pair of finished plates aside and began working on more, allowing Sam to come in and grab them to set them on the table.

James hoped the young Miss would be awake soon; it would be a shame if she missed dinner while it was still fresh.

“Mmm, something smells good!” That would be the young lady, James finished plating the last few dishes, grabbing what he could and leaving the rest for Sam to grab and left the kitchen just in time to see Sam ask why they should care about her name.

James’ already frayed nerves just got that much shorter and he set the plates down a little forcefully, snapping “Sam, I will roast that tongue of yours for dinner if it doesn’t stop flapping uselessly in that mouth of yours.”

Sam called his bluff and rolled his eyes. “Sure, whatever.” and left to the kitchen.

Mika looked between the two, realizing a little belatedly that James had tried to apologize on his behalf.

“O-oh it’s fine, no worries.” She stammered out, turning her attention to the dinner table James was standing near.

“That’s good to hear, we hope you enjoy the meal we’ve prepared for you.”

Mika frowned a moment, why did they make her dinner..? She remembered then Matthew and Damien both telling her that the brothers’ had spent the time she’d been asleep making dinner as an apology for breaking into her home.

“That’s fine!” She quickly said, raising her hands in a placating gesture. “You didn’t have to!”

“It’s quite alright,” James assured her, Matthew and Damien entering from the lobby and Sam with Erik coming in from the kitchen. “Besides, it’d be impossible to have us undo our cooking, even if you commanded us to do so.” He grinned, showing Erik where everyone would be seated for dinner. Matthew split off from the group, grabbing final touches for the placings and setting them on the table, gesturing to Mika to take her seat at one of the middle chairs

“Dinner’s all served!” He said with a smile, sitting to one side of her, Sam taking the spot on the other side of him.

Mika used this small lull to actually look at the almost frightening amount of food placed before her, it seemed to come from all over. Tuscany, Southern and Northern Italian, French cuisine, German, Mexican, some South American dish, and even more she couldn’t even recognize. It all looked amazing, and she was sure the boys heard her stomach growl.

“It all looks so good!” She exclaimed, looking back at James with a look of astonishment.

“We hope you enjoy it, my sweet.” Erik smoothly added, sliding up beside James.

“That’s enough, Erik,” James said, putting a stop to whatever Erik had tried to pull.

For now, it appears to have worked. Eric huffed out a grumble at his stick-in-the-mud brother and left for the table, allowing James to hold his arm out to her. “If you’ll allow me, Miss. I apologize for my brother.”

“I-It’s quite okay…” Mika said as she took the offered arm. She appreciated James’ presence, a metaphorical fresh wind of tranquility in rather turmoil waters. He was one of the more level-headed brothers, excluding Damien although she had a feeling he was merely shy and would come out of his shell as he became more comfortable in the new surroundings. He seemed to keep them in line well enough, so they held him in respect, he was very well mannered and probably very intelligent if his manner of speech and eloquence was anything to go by.

James broke her train of thought by speaking, “I have to ask, Miss, but why do you live alone?”

“It’s… Kind of a long story.” Mika admitted with a rueful smile.

James only allowed the smile on his face to reach his eyes in response, “We have time, and I have ears if you wish to speak.”

Why not, maybe since he’s impartial with no prior biases he’ll actually listen to her. “Well,” She started. “to make a long story short, I just moved here today.”

“That would explain the luggage you brought with you; we couldn’t remember exactly if those had already been there, however, I am glad that we were correct. By the way,” James added, sounding as if it was an afterthought. “We put your belongings in the bedroom you were sleeping in, I believe that is the master bedroom.”

“I appreciate that.” Mika smiled, “This is my grandfather's’ home. I would visit him when I was younger, even when I would explore the estate back then I don’t believe I ever managed to see it all.”

“Your grandfather? May I ask why you live in your grandfather’s house?” James asked.

“This house was bequeathed to me in his will… He actually passed away yesterday. I was sent to live here almost immediately after finding out, whether I like it or not, really.” Mika tried to laugh it off, make light of what happened in the space of 24 hours.

“My condolences for your loss. If you don’t mind my saying, it seems as though you don’t like the idea of living here.”

“It’s… More of the implication of what staying at this estate means, rather than me not liking living here or that I don’t have fond memories of the place… It’s complicated to explain if I’m honest.” She said, almost not wanting to say more. Staying here meant that she was going to become the next CEO, her future paved out for her by her father’s wishes with no regard for her desires.

“Well then, how do you feel about it?” James asked, a smile twitching at the corner of his lips. Out of all the questions, she thought he’d ask he asked one she wasn’t expecting. Mika appreciated that it was at least different than what she’d heard all day in school and that he seemed willing to listen to her for once.

“I feel…” Once she thought about it the emotions she’d been forcing down to put on a happy brave face for the public - no one wants to see a girl upset at anything - they started pouring out. “Angry, scared, sad, confused. It’s kind of hard picking the different emotions that I’m feeling…” She sighed, lowering her eyes to the ground. “I wish I were stronger, then I wouldn’t be feeling like this.” Like a failure, part of her whispered.

“You don’t have to be strong.” The sentence almost pulsed within her, down to where she could almost feel her soul, and she had to pause a moment to collect herself again.

“...What do you mean?”

“It’s okay to feel those emotions. You’re going through a difficult time, it’s understandable that you’d feel them. You don’t have to be strong at all in this situation.”

Her words almost caught in her throat. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” James smiled again, a moment later frowning and leaning a bit closer to her face. “Are you alright? You have a small bruise on your cheek…”

Mika felt her face heat up. “Uh, yes, yes I'm alright,” He leaned a bit closer, having to actually bend down to look at it with more scrutiny before straightening back up.

“Alright. If you’re having any problems, please remember that I’m here to listen.”

“Thank you for offering…” A small smile came back to her face, though it fell when Sam spoke up.

“Good Christ would you hurry up?” He almost shouted from his seat, plate already heaped with different foods. “Dinner’s gonna get cold while you two chat it up!” He promptly shoved a piece of food in his mouth.

James sighed at the interception and turned his attention back to Mika. “Your seat.” He let go of her arm, taking the chair to her right.

“Let me get your chair for you, sweetness.” Erik slid up behind her, quickly pulling her chair out for her and back under her as she sat down. Erik’s honeyed words and a smile tugged at Mika’s heart, even more so with the distance she could see in his eyes as he flirted with her.

“You don’t have to keep talking like that, you know.” She told him once she was seated.

“Hm? Like what?”

“Like… It feels like all you’re doing is trying to get into my pants.”

“I am simply a lover of beautiful women.” Another graceful smile appeared on his face, causing Mika to giggle.

“Something tells me there’s more to it than that.”

That caused the smile to turn into a grin. “Oh? Would you like there to be more?” She could tell he tried to play it off, but the distance in his eyes only seemed to get larger, and his smile faltered. Before she could question it, the look was gone, replaced by his characteristic neutral smile. “At any rate, I wanted to apologize as well, for stealing your second kiss.”

“Hm?” She furrowed her brows in confusion for a moment before remembered the reason she passed out in the first place. “Oh no, it’s fine! I mean, at least you didn’t just get up and grab a kiss for no reason.” It was something of a pointed jab at Sam, who didn’t seem to be paying attention.

Erik laughed, catching it for what it was. “I’m not as forward, unlike Sam.” He suddenly leaned back in, whispering in her ear “I won’t lie, though… I enjoyed kissing you, and feeling you melt in my arms and against my lips…” Mika felt her cheeks blush and she pushed him away with some nervous laughter.

Erik only laughed in response, heading around the table to his own chair. She only then saw that James had begun serving her, placing several different pieces of the various dishes on her plate.

“I hope you enjoy, my sweet.” Erik said, “I made almost all the dishes myself.”

“And I’m the queen of the nile!” Matthew piped up, hiding a mouthful of food behind a hand. “You, me, and James made dinner together, dummy!”

“You, James, and I, Matthew.” James corrected from her right, causing Erik to chuckle almost derisively.

“Little boys will always make mistakes.”

“I’m not a little boy!” Matthew indignantly said, “I’m barely a year younger than you!”

“You certainly don’t act like you’re a year younger than me.” Erik continued, Matthew stuck his tongue out, and Mika had to giggle.

Even with some of his more childish behavior and total babyface he felt more mature than Erik and Sam did. Not more mature than James, and his maturity compared to Damien’s is about equal, but he felt that the things he did he did out of choice than anything else.

Matthew and Erik looked at her when she laughed, the younger one a bit hurt, “Is something funny?”

“No, no,” Mika said through her giggle fit. “It’s nothing, don’t worry. Thank you all for the meal!”

Instantly the distressed look Matthew gave her was gone, replaced by a bright smile and a laugh. “Oh, well then you’re welcome miss!”

Erik also complimented her, saying “Such a well-mannered young lady! Beautiful inside, and out!”

“Erik, knock it off.” Matthew’s exasperated voice spoke volumes of how often Erik talked like that to ladies. Sam even spoke up from his corner of the table.

“Seriously, you’re getting really annoying with that suck-up act.”

“I’m just trying to be a gentleman.” Erik attempted to defend himself. “The young girl has already gone through so much, she deserves to be treated nicely.”

James spoke in a very calm manner, not even giving Erik full eye contact. “There’s a difference between being a gentleman, and being an obnoxious flirt.” He stated, and Mika had to agree. If any of them was a gentleman, it was James, 100%.

Sam and Matthew laughed at James’ shut-down, The younger poked Erik in the arm, saying “Ooooh, schooled even by James! Man, you’re gonna need some cold water for that burn!” Erik fell silent, and Mika believed that he was only trying to save whatever face he still had after that.

James cleared his throat again, grabbing everyone's attention. “At any rate, let's eat before this meal grows cold.”

“Here, here!” Sam said as he and Matthew dug in with gusto. James frowned at their poor manners.

“Really, you two? You’re both acting like pigs!”

“Oh, let them be, James,” Erik said, picking up his cutlery and slicing up a steak. “It’s not like we’ve eaten recently either, I’m sure they’ve been starving,” James grumbled about how it’s still no excuse and Mika had to work to keep her laugh from coming out. James looked at her with almost grateful eyes that at least someone held decent manners.

“By the way,” James spoke up from beside her, breaking her out of her train of thought - again. “I don’t believe we know your name, though we have already introduced ourselves.

“Ah, I’m Mika.”

“It’s a pleasure to know your name, finally,” James said, the others speaking up about it as well. They began grabbing food, Sam going back to eating the food on his plate when a thought came to her.

“Excuse me...” Mika said, instantly the five boys looked up at her almost in unison.

“What is it, miss?” James asked from beside her.

“I just… I just wanted to thank you for the food, but I still want to know why you all came here… I feel like I don’t understand.” Although Mika wondered how understandable it was that a bunch of incubi randomly appearing would be at all.

Sam growled in frustration, “What’s so difficult to understand?” He almost snapped out “We were attacked, we came here to heal.”

“Yeah, I get that, but happened specifically?”

“Does it matter?” Sam asked, something of a growl lacing his words.

“It does when I don’t know if whatever hunted you is still hunting you!” Mika's voice was loud as she stood up and banged her hands on the table. The boys fell silent at her. “I don't know what's hunting you.” Her voice was calmer but was still firm “Will it find you here?”

James cleared his throat, bringing all their eyes to him. Mika returned to her seat, face flushed as James began to explain. “Well… You see, we’ve traveling around for quite some time, now. We came into town pretty recently but early on in this visit we were jumped by a band of misfits.” James paused in labeling what attacked them, “The fight went about as well as you can imagine, we ended up escaping and coming here for shelter to heal. Again, we apologize for the mess we made in the foyer. As for if they will find us here…” He sighed. “It is a possibility.” He smiled at her, and Mika looked them over a few seconds.

“But, you’re all better now right?”

Matthew spoke then, “Yup, all thanks to you!” His smile was infectious, and she could feel the corners of her mouth tilt up to mirror his while her expression clouded with confusion.

“Me?”

“You have a lot of energy, beautiful,” Erik said, leaning against a hand propped up on the table. “You see, lovely, we as incubi feed on sexual energy.” The way he said ‘Sexual’ almost made the skin on Mika’s back crawl.

“So when you kissed me…?”

Erik nodded, “Yes, I took some of your energy, however we don’t get it just from kissing alluring ladies such as yourself. We can directly touch someone’s hand to obtain the energy we need. Everyone carries sexual energy, you know.”

Mika was quiet while she processed that, passing over bowls to Matthew and Sam who had quickly devolved into kicking each other under the table while they fought over who would get the last of the yeast rolls. She realized that if it wasn’t just kissing, it was everything alongside it that was physical. It would explain why her unconsciousness lasted for hours. Still, her eyes looked beside herself briefly and met whiskey-colored eyes, and she could feel herself get pulled deeper into them even while sirens went off in her head warning her against getting too involved.

James looked at her in silence for a moment before tilting his head in confusion. He swallowed the bite he’d taken and asked: “Is there anything else you wish to know?”

“Well… What do you plan to do now?” The question was light, she brought a bite of a sweet potato - roasted and seasoned in some way that reminded her of a hole-in-the-wall taiwanese place she went to once - but it made the boys go silent.

They looked to James, Matthew taking a breather from his meal first “Yeah,” He nodded alongside her. “What are we gonna do now?”

Mika took a moment to thank Matthew for the sweet potatoes, he only smiled in response before looking back to his elder brother.

James nodded, leaning back in his chair. “That is an excellent question,” He muttered, thinking aloud. “We just got here, and we’ll surely be hunted again if we leave…” His eyes flicked to Mika for a second before Sam finally broke his own silence.

“We can take ‘em. Easily. Get some fuckin’ payback for that shitshow they put us through.” He pointed to James with his fork, stabbing another piece of meat and shoving it in his mouth.

“Well based on our last encounter with them,” Erik looked at him somewhat disdainfully. “Easily is how the fight would go for them. We need more training if we wish to defeat them when we cross paths again.”

They began arguing amongst themselves, Sam arguing with Erik about different approaches (Sam wanted to rush in while Erik wanted them to weigh options, running was always on the table after all) Matthew seemed more put out that it had come up at all, Mika wondered if he even wanted to fight. Damien was silent. He’d been very quiet the entire dinner and wondered if he was shy or was more of them mindset that he doesn’t feel like talking unless what he has to say has meaning.

She watched them all discuss this unknown but real threat realized that they probably couldn’t survive on the run. They hadn’t known it was illegal to break into people's’ homes, and if they don’t know that there’s probably even more that they don’t know. Erik alone could probably cause a traffic accident while poor Damien would very quickly get overstimulated and that wouldn’t be good… Her eyes turned down as her mind went down other roads, if the boys were found out for what they were they would be taken in and questioned by the local police, by state officials, men in suits from the government, made into some highly classified test subjects at some secret military base like Area 51 and… Mika’s mind filled more of images she’d seen from horror movies about the kind of torture that can go on in a laboratory and she shut her eyes a moment to calm herself back down.

Unbidden a memory bubbles to her mind, a time when she was more likely to watch her life go by without her, she’d always been a quiet child, and it didn’t help her that she was the granddaughter of Harold Anderson and given special treatment because of it. At some point she decided to see her grandfather, he was the only one she felt she could turn to, her loneliness sat deep in her soul and Mika didn’t believe anyone could help. Not her mother, her father, not even the other kids in school. She left school that day and went walking to her grandfather’s, however, got lost. Her grandfather luckily found her leaning against a building fighting back her tears and while Mika didn’t recognize him then from that moment life for her began moving, and she took a more active role in her life.

Mika believed she had the opportunity to help them if nothing else she could allow them to stay at her mansion until this person or people hunting them was gone, it shouldn’t take too long, would it? The sirens from before were going off again; they were demons. All five of them were actual honest-to-God demons and that she would probably get visitors and she didn’t want to explain their powers or why Erik was able to pull the things he could or why Sam would be bench pressing some God awful heavy thing as though it were a sack of potatoes.

Other pieces of logistics cropped up in her head as she mulled it over, the boys bickering about where to go next falling on deaf ears. The memory she liked to visit the most, her grandfather telling her that she should do what makes her happy as well came to her and she felt something in her soul harden at it. It wasn’t a particularly smart move. However, it is something that she could do for them, and it made her happy, so Mika cleared her throat. “Well, um…” Her voice squeaked out - so much for a strong start. “You… You could… Stay with me here, if you’d like.”

“What was that, lovely?” Erik asked with a smile.

“You could stay with me here, uh. If you’d like.” Her face flushed and she looked back to her lap while the boys stopped talking and looked at her. “Well I mean it seems like you need a place to stay and uh, this house is giant just for one person so I mean it makes sense? Kinda? I mean if you don’t want to that’s fine it’s up to you now, I just wanted to put it on the table and…” She trailed off, forcing herself to stop rambling.

“Would there be caveats for this kind hospitality?” James asked, turning his body on the chair to look at her.

“Well, um.” Mika hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Well, the first one is that you can’t use your powers or do something deliberately that could hurt me or any guest that comes over. Excluding those people hunting you or general bad guys. Uh, I guess you should use your best judgment on that?”

“Sounds fair,” James nodded, followed suit by Damien and Matthew.

“As the lady desires.” Erik acknowledged. Sam was quiet, waiting for any more conditions.

“And the second is that you’ll have to help me with house upkeep, it’s kind of big for just one person, so… yeah.”

“What?!” Sam shouted, standing from the table.

“Sam.” James warned, his voice clipping with anger. “Be polite or I will make it so.”

“I’d like to see you try!” He told James before looking back to Mika. “Why the fuck should we be required to help you do your chores?!”

“Well would you rather pay, some sort of rent?” Mika asked. “I’m sure I could set up some fees!” She could feel the anger bubbling beneath her skin before James cleared his throat, causing them both - or at least Mika - to start calming back down.

“The stipulations are just fine, it’s a very generous offer, Miss. Are you sure you wish to do this? We don’t want to burden you any more than we already have.”

“It’s just fine!” Already the idea of them living there was turning into something favorable in her head. “I just started living here myself I mean, so… I would appreciate some help around the house.” At least until she can get herself a job so she could afford a maid or something. This house is far too big for just one person!

Erik loved the idea, calling them the servants for a beautiful princess while Damien and Matthew stood to collect the used dishes. Sam grumbled still, upset that the conditions she listed were so easily accepted. Matthew shushed him, causing Mika to giggle as he told Sam to shut up. That earned a few laughs from the others, all of whom, save for Sam, seemed to like the idea.

Sam let out a growl “Fine,” He bit out. “But we aren’t gonna stay here forever. Just until we can beat that group of punks into pulp.” Mika almost expected James to say something to him about his tone, but he only smiled lightly, she could almost see the exhaustion on his face from his past few days and near brush with death.

“I believe that is a reasonable time limit for our stay. We do not wish to burden you-”

“Any longer than you have,” Mika finished. “Listen if it were going to be a burden to me I wouldn’t have offered.” Her mouth quirked up in a lopsided smile. “So just accept some hospitality and kindness okay?”

The exhaustion that had ghosted onto James’ face disappeared and his mouth turned up into an actual smile, “If the lady insists.”


	2. Chapter 2

Dinner had completed, and Mika and the boys had begun to head to a much-desired rest when a loud ringtone started to play, Mika flinched at the sudden noise and rushed to pick it up. The boys paused their own conversation to hang back, curiosity shining on their faces.

“It’s… my mom?” Mika said aloud before hitting the answer button. “Hello?”

Mrs. Andersons’ voice sounded smaller from the other side of the phone and for the first time since coming here she honestly felt separated from her family – they’d be finishing dinner too. Her mother and father would have been washing the dishes while Mika was putting food away and routing out the recycling that had been accumulated that day. Now she was here with five incubi, and somehow, she’s part of something larger than she ever believed possible.

“Hey, honey! How are you?” Her mothers’ genuine concern after her fathers’ brush off made her breath hitch in her chest. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to see you off this afternoon…”

“Hi, Mom. Everything’s fine,” Her eyes glanced up at the boys, thankfully keeping silent for her. “I actually just finished now.”

“You did? What did you have? I didn’t think the house would have food!”

“Well, I had this delicious shrimp pesto pasta.” She admitting, glancing to James who in turn smiled at the compliment.

“That sounds amazing honey, I’m glad you’re still eating good! I thought that once you got the place to yourself, you’d just get takeout all the time.” The humor in her mothers’ voice made her smile as well.

“Mom, I’m 18 that doesn’t mean I’d eat takeout 24/7!”

“See I said the same thing when I was your age.” She could hear Mrs. Anderson’s smile from the other side of the line.

“Alright mom,” Mika laughed. “I get it. So did you call for a reason or just to be social?” The boys were looking at each other at that point, wondering if they should stay or go, eventually taking their cue from James. The eldest stood and watched, at least until he was certain that what this was about didn’t concern them in any way.

“Well,” Her mother sounded hesitant to talk. “You father wanted me to call. He wanted to talk to you about having a house party tomorrow night, to celebrate the new house and all.” Mika almost couldn’t believe her ears. “I believed he called it a step towards your independence and successful growth into the family company.”

Mika frowned, “A house party? Really? And he wants it tomorrow night? That’s so soon, though, does he expect me to get no sleep tonight prepping for it?”

“Your father insists.” Of course, he does, she fumed. “You know how he is with events…” Her mother still sounded reluctant, Mika knew that her mother had tried to talk her father out of the party, at least the party being the next night.

“I know,” She finally said. Her father never liked long wait periods between important events, though in this case, it shows a definite lack of tact to have a celebration at his late fathers’ home that he moved his daughter into the day after he was put beneath the ground. In the back of her mind, she wondered if he hoped that her presence at the house would turn it into something better, rather than a place associated with the man he so hated. He hated these relaxing periods so when he decided an event should take place, he expected his family to react on a dime and have everything prepared for it within hours.

Honestly the fact that he’s allowing the event to be tomorrow is something of a feat.

“I know,” She said again, “But since I don’t exactly have you and daddy here to help me plan and arrange it, I’m going to need more time to prepare things here for the party…”

“Well, Suzu and Naomi can help.” She said, meaning that her father was adamant that this happens on schedule. “I have work, otherwise I’d help out as well, and you know how your father is…”

“I know, I have to do it myself. He won’t help.” She couldn’t help the slight tone of bitterness that laced her words.

“I’m sure it’ll be amazing honey,” The words of encouragement really didn’t help her rapidly declining mood. “I have faith in you.”

“Thanks, mom…”

“Alright, I’ve gotta go. I love you, sweetie.” Her mom tried to help her, Mika knows this, but it doesn’t help the fact that she was unable to change her fathers’ mind.

“I love you too, Mom.” Her mother hung up on the other line, and Mika let out a groan, placing a hand on her head. “Great… How am I going to pull this off…?” She muttered.

Erik cocked his head to the side, “Is something wrong?”

Before Mika could answer Damien spoke up, “She’s been asked to organize a house party for her parents.” Mika blushed, forgetting he could read minds. Damien chuckled, responding to Mika’s mental confusion and subsequent understanding.

“Either way I’m going to need to stay up all night planning it…” Already she’s thinking back to previous parties she could probably emulate, some sort of wine, hors d’oeuvres for the guests, placings, a meal for everyone. She was in the middle of thinking about what kind of catering she could get at this short notice when Matthew broke her concentration.

“Hey, why don’t we help you?”

“Pardon?”

“That’s what we’re here for right?” He continued, looking to his brothers for further validation.

“I couldn’t ask you guys to do this, chores is one thing but planning a house warming party for my parents…?”

“Consider it, then,” James said with a slight smile playing at his lips, “As our way of thanking you for your incredible generosity.” The others nodded in agreement as he spoke while Sam kept up his usual gruff attitude.

“How about we leave the human-“

“Mika.” James interrupted.

“The Human,” Sam re-emphasized, “to her own thing and we focus on training so we can beat those assholes down.” A growl laced his voice, and Mika noticed Matthew glowering at his elder brother.

The eldest ignored Sam’s suggestion, speaking for the five of them himself, “Don’t worry about it, miss. We’ll help you prepare for it.” They all grinned at her, and she could only nod in acquiescence.

“I…I suppose I can’t persuade you otherwise…?” She said, almost hopeful. It’d be nice to have help preparing for this thing, but she can’t ask these guys to help her! They are her guests, and yes, they’re helping around the house, but they don’t need to adding this on top of that.

“Not at all.” The bright smile on James’ face felt weird when paired with the firmness of his words. Mika let out a small sigh.

“Well thank you.” She finally said, already warming to the idea of help. Preparing could have been done by herself, but she was very sure that with the boys helping her the party would go much smoother. “I really appreciate it.” Her mind already started delegating work, Matthew would be in charge of the menu, Sam or James would get the front yard while the other would take the back, and that left the interior everyone would be using… While she was thinking, James had come up beside her.

“Think nothing of it.” James began walking alongside her, gently ushering her along.

“Tired, princess?” Erik asked, noting her yawn.

Mika nodded, covering her mouth for a second yawn. “Yeah… It’s been a very long day.” She let out a sigh. “Tomorrow’s Saturday, at least, so I can sleep in…” She frowned a moment, realizing somewhat belatedly that she has no idea where the five brothers will sleep.

“I’ll help you find some rooms to sleep in,” She said, turning to give them a smile as they entered the foyer.

“There’s no need,” James assured her. “While you were sleeping earlier Damien had been looking around the house, he’s found us several guest rooms on the other side of the house from where you were.” Mika turned her look to Damien who only looked back, almost like he was waiting for her reaction.

“Oh, well got it then.” She blinked. “I’m heading to my room then, I’ll see you guys in the morning?”

“Sleep well, princess.” Erik sang out to her.

“…Right,” She laughed it off. “Well if you need me you know where I sleep.” She only realized what that sounded like after it came out of her mouth and her cheeks tinted red.

“Of course,” James nodded, saving her from one of Erik’s come-ons. “Good night.” She waved to them all and started moving up the stairs. The brothers stayed behind for a short while before the smile on James' face fell.

“Erik,” He sounded almost exhausted from this, “No.”

“What?” Erik asked incredulously. “I wasn’t going to do anything.”

“Yes, he was,” Damien muttered off to one side, following Matthew and Sam up the stairs. Erik shushed him as he pulled up the rear to go to their rooms.

Mika fell on top of her bed in exhaustion, so much had happened within the last 24 hours that her brain felt fuzzy and as though anything else coming at her would just go right over her head. She groaned, remembering that she had just woken up from a nap and that she had no right to be as exhausted as she was, so Mika forced herself upright and pulled out one of her textbooks, determined to get at least something done before calling it a day.

After several read-throughs of the book, she finally decided that enough was enough and put it down, getting clean and changing for bed. She hoped that Saturday would be better, Mika felt that another day full of surprises like the last few days would be enough to kill her outright. She closed her eyes and drifted into sleep.

A black void surrounded her, she felt warm, but there was nothing as far as the eye could see – could she see? Were her eyes even open? – She tried to speak but nothing came out, she put a hand to her throat and tried to talk, Mika could feel the vibrations in her throat as she spoke, but nothing came to her ears. She believed she was breathing, her chest was moving up and down, she tried to walk but as that there was no light she had no idea if she was actually moving. She still couldn’t see. Mika put her hands up to her eyes – there was no change in light - and tried to blink, and when she felt her eyelashes on her fingers, she knew they were open and lowered her hands although from how little the actual surroundings changed she might as well not have.  
A sinister laugh broke through her quickly panicking thoughts, a voice growled out “You fuckin’ pretty boys think you’re all that, huh?” She could tell he was laughing through his words and Mika felt bugs crawling under her skin, she rose her hands to her arms to wipe them off and only met smooth skin. The voice spoke, and the crawling feeling returned. “Say that to the end of my pistol, fuckheads!” She tried to talk, but nothing came out again, suddenly she was surrounded by arguing voices, the crawling skin solidified around her body to make her feel trapped a feeling of coldness on her head, and the man's voice let out a terrible laugh.

“Make one fucking move! Make one move, and she gets it!” Mika wished she hadn’t watched so many horror movies before, the click from the gun cocking against her forehead was far too real in her mind – in her mind? Is she dreaming? Is she going to die? Another voice interrupts her thoughts, one she’s familiar with.

“Let her go!” Matthew shouts.

Sam follows him up, growling out “Come on you piece of chicken shit! Fight us like a real man!”

“Oh, Sam~” The voice mocked, “I’m so scared~.” He laughed again, causing the cold metal against her head to tremble. “Like you fucking scare me! Take one step! I dare ya!” Mika tried to turn her head again, frustrated at her lack of ability to do anything. Her head felt like it moved, but she was still surrounded by an unending sea of black.

James' voice rang out, causing her heart to beat in her chest. “Stay away from her, Malix!” A lot of things rolled around in her mind at that, the definition of the prefix Mal – A French word meaning evil, ill, or wrong – The realization that the boys seemingly know this person, the idea that this is the person who was hunting them, or that this is a very elaborate dream and one she hopes she can laugh off when she wakes up (Why couldn’t she wake up?)

“And what’re you gonna do, nerd boy?! Read me to sleep?” Mika felt herself whimper at the laughter. “Try something!” He called out again. “Anything! See what happens.” It was an obvious dare, she felt her head nudge as the gun prodded against the side of her head.

As soon as she felt like the boys were at a stalemate she was yanked to one side, a scent she vaguely realized as Eriks’ drifted across her mind as he pulled her against his chest, wrapping his arms around her tightly. “Don’t worry,” His voice was always so even-tempo’d, even in her mess of a dream. “I’ve got you.”

She could tell arguments and shouting was going on, but while she was in Erik’s arms the hostility and powerful feeling of the dream faded, Mika could feel herself coming back into herself, and she could feel her heart going a mile a minute in her chest as her breaths finally evened out again. The arms stayed around her body, however, and she forced her eyes open, fluttering against the bright light to look behind her.

Damien’s purple eyes met hers, his eyebrows were furrowed with worry, and she belatedly realized that he must have seen what was happening in her dream. Mika muttered an apology as they separated, thinking back to her dream and remembering that it had been Erik who held her in the dream when, she assumed, Damien had come in.

“You can’t control your dreams,” Damien answered to her unasked question.

“I’ve heard people can, but I’m not one of them.” She shrugged, sitting up in the bed.

“Are you okay?” His voice was back to worried for her.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Mika stood, stretching her arms above her head. “Thank you, Damien.”

“Of course,” He smiled at her, following her lead and getting off the bed. “It’s 9 in the morning.”

“Oh.” He’d anticipated her question again, it would take some time to get used to that.

“James and I were making breakfast when I…” He trailed off, letting Mika fill in the gaps about what happened next.

Mika frowned, an idea forming in her mind. “So,” She started, hesitantly. “You can’t control your mind-reading?”

“No, not yet at least,” Damien admitted, looking back at her. “I hope to learn eventually.”

Before Mika could ask any more questions, James entered, looking between Mika, standing against her dresser, and Damien, on the other wall. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“I’m assuming you had a nightmare?”

“Yes,” Mika admitted. “Thankfully Damien was able to wake me up before it got… worse.” She laughed a little uncomfortably, the feeling of the cold muzzle of a gun tapping against the side of her head hadn’t completely left her yet. “I’m sorry for disturbing you both.”

“Not a worry,” James waved the apology off. “You didn’t disturb us, miss. Besides, we’d rather make sure you’re okay than you having to shoulder your problems all on your own.”

“O-oh. Thank you, then…” Mika had to admit, it was nice waking up in someone’s arms after a nightmare like that. She’d probably still be in bed calming herself down from it if she’d been in this huge house alone.

“Now,” James clapped his hands together, “why don’t you come downstairs with us for breakfast? After a nightmare, good food is the best way to take ones’ mind off it.” She nodded, and the pair left, allowing her to change into day-wear. It was nice they showed concern about her, even if they’d known her for less than a day. She took her clothes into the joined bathroom to fix her face, and her eyes couldn’t help but travel over her body once more. She wasn’t sure why the unmarked skin never changed, and she felt some small bubble of hope vanish as she found her body as clear as ever.

Mika wondered about that hope as she washed her face, what had changed to allow that hope to take root? Idly she wondered if it was the boy’s entrance in her life that did it since they are demons they probably don’t have these kinds of soul-marks. Do demons even have souls? If they did wouldn’t they have the marks too? What if it’s just a human thing and Mika is still the black sheep of humanity. She couldn’t help the image of the boys – James if she allowed herself to be honest – that popped up in her mind. She couldn’t imagine what their soul marks would be, probably in the middle of their chest or wrapped around their sides, James’ would probably be some shade of gold like his eyes.

Her heart thudded in her chest, and Mika realized she should be getting dressed, she’d promised James and Damien to join them for breakfast after all. Quickly she pulled her clothes on, tossing her pajamas on her unmade bed – that’s an issue for future!Mika – and made her way to the dining room. The smell of bacon, eggs, and fried potatoes greeted her from the table as the brothers sat around it with their own plates.

“Breakfast smells good!” Mika sat at the empty chair with a plate of food in front of it, Sam nodded in hello.

“Morning,” he said through a mouthful of food. “You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Mika smiled, picking up her fork.

“Sam, don’t eat with your mouth full.” James sent a glare to his brother.

“Okay, _mom_.” Sam grumbled, taking another bite of food.

Erik shook his head at the two, “Really? You already got into it earlier while James and Damien were cooking and you still have the energy to bicker?”

“What happened?” Mika quietly asked Matthew who was sitting beside her again.

“Oh, just Sam being loud and shouting at James, James shouted back that he shouldn’t be yelling, Sam yelled back at James ‘You’re yelling too!’ and James just slapped him down with his ‘Don’t argue with me!’ voice.” Matthew attempted to imitate the pair, giving Sam a mockingly whiny voice and James a deep and demanding voice. Mika giggled, looking back to the others where Sam and Erik were still bickering, now with added fuel from Matthew’s rendition of what happened earlier.

“And who are you,” Sam started, swallowing the mouthful of food at a glare from James, “to tell me what I can and can’t do here?”

“Well for starters,” Erik feigned calmness, “This is not your house, therefore you abide by the owners’ rules, in this case, our lovely Princess.” He glanced up at her and winked.

“Ugh, and you’re back to your perving,” Sam grumbled. “I wish this was the fucking castle, at least then I wouldn’t have to stick around for it.”

“Castle?” Mika scrambled for her fork as it fell from her hand at clattered against her plate.

Sam smirked at her reaction, “Yeah, we have a castle back home. Our dining room’s ten times bigger than this room.” Part of her then wondered what she was doing with these incubi, if they had a castle were they nobility? Possibly royalty if James’ demeanor was anything to go by but Mika had no basis of comparison, but there were nobles in her home, and she was having them do chores, and they were cooking for her and-

Erik’s sharp tone shook her out of her spiraling thoughts, almost at the same time as Damien touching her hand as a way to distract her, right he can read minds. “Then wouldn’t it be logical to not yell?” Erik asked Sam. Sam scoffed and muttered something in rebuttal as the rest of the brothers settled around them. They’d gotten into their meals, light, playful banter between the boys while Mika thought over what would be necessary for the party to be hosted today when her phone broke the relaxed atmosphere with a start.

The boys looked at her briefly as Mika quickly pulled the phone out of her pocket to answer before going back to their food. “Hello?”

“Hey! Good morning!” Naomi’s bright voice chirped from the other side.

“Guess who’s at your door right now?” Suzu’s voice could be heard as well, and before Mika could turn in her chair, there was a knock at the door. Matthew, in all his cheerfulness, shouted that he’d get the door as he stood and almost dashed to the door,

Mika quickly on his heels. She called out to Matthew to wait however he’d already turned the handle and was opening the door.

“Good morn-..” He trailed off as he saw who was in front of him coupled with Mika’s command finally registering. The silence surrounding them could be cut with a knife as Suzu and Naomi stared at the young man in front of them. Matthew was the first to break that silence, trying to greet them once more. “Uh… Hi…?”

Mika screamed in her head, she felt frozen in place out of embarrassment and fear, how was she going to explain the presence of the brothers? She hadn’t thought that far ahead, maybe distant relatives? Just visitors? Friends of the family sounded like the best option. However, she could barely get a single word out of her constricted throat.

“Who… Are you?” Suzu asked, looking up at him and then back to Mika’s bright red face.

“L-let me explain!” Mika finally got out, stepping forward beside Matthew who in turn took a step back.

“Please…?” Naomi asked, eyes widening as Mika heard the telltale shuffle of more feet and she inwardly groaned. Exactly what she needed.

“Matthew, who’s at the door- Oh.” Erik’s voice came from behind her.

“What’s going on…?” Naomi’s voice wavered with worry as she looked between them, Suzu’s expression matching hers.

“Yeah, who are they?” Suzu pressed.

“They’re my-“

“I beg your pardon miss,” James interrupted, stepping forward. “We are the household butlers,” He provided. Suzu looked between them rather skeptically, not that Mika could blame her Matthew and Sam did not look the part of a butler. “We were off for the week on a preplanned trip,” James smoothly lied. “We came back only this morning when we received word that the previous owner of the house, Miss Anderson’s grandfather, passed and she had come to live in his place.”  
Mika had to wonder how often James lied to get that smooth of delivery. Suzu and Naomi’s faces started to relax as they accepted the lie he was telling them.

“Naturally,” He continued. “We could not allow the young Miss to move into an empty house, so we cut our trip short and came back.” The girls looked to their friend for confirmation to which Mika could only nod, not yet trusting her voice. James placed a hand on Mika’s shoulder, the tension and worry in her body melting away in a flowing cascade. “If you would please come with us to the parlor we can explain everything.”

“S-sure..” Suzu said, stepping forward with Naomi. Damien showed the girls to the parlor – that had been located last night – while Erik took Sam and Matthew to the kitchen to prepare tea at the unspoken order from James. Once Suzu and Naomi were used to the boys they began to look at them and back to Mika, Naomi with questions in her gaze, Suzu with a grin that spoke volumes. Damien, to his credit, gave no outward sign of any weird thoughts. They sat in the parlor as Erik came back in with a tray, three teacups, a hot teapot, and a plate with delicious looking snacks on them – undoubtedly Matthew’s work at some point.

“This looks delicious!” Suzu exclaimed while Naomi thanked Erik for his kindness as he poured the tea for them. Mika quietly took a sip as James sat beside her, she took solace in his calm aura, and from the way, the other two responded to him, they were probably subtly manipulated by his incubus powers.

“Our pleasure, the snacks were created by Matthew earlier today, we hope you enjoy them,” Erik answered with a smile. Erik soon followed by Damien, Sam, and Matthew stood behind the sofa Mika was sitting on.

“As I said in the foyer,” James started, drawing the gaze of all the girls. “We are butlers in service to the late Mr. Anderson, once we received word of his death we cut our vacation short and came back to the house to oversee any further instructions he may have left in his will. As the only stipulation in his will was that the house and all surrounding land and everything inside it now belongs to Miss. Anderson,” He gestured to Mika beside her. “We are now hers.”

Some part of Mika fluttered when he said that.

The pair across the table nodded. “That makes sense,” Naomi said, placing her cup back on its saucer. “It’s such a huge house for one person!”

Erik took a grand bow from behind the sofa, Mika could almost feel Sams' eyes roll in their sockets. “A huge house for a wonderful princess such as Miss. Anderson deserves only the greatest of servants to care for it.”

Suzu spoke up, covering her mouth as she spoke around one of the cookies Matthew baked. “But if you’re butlers why are you dressed so casually? Aren’t you supposed to have uniforms or whatever?”

“We do,” James started and tried to continue but was cut off by Matthew.

“Miss. Anderson allows us to get comfy while we work, so she’s allowed us to wear casual clothes.” Mika could almost feel the resignation roll off James’ shoulders, she could tell he had a perfectly valid excuse for it and couldn’t stop a giggle escaping her, granting her a side-eye from James. Sam grumbled an assent while Damien hurried forward with an apology for the confusion.

“We’re very sure that Miss. Anderson is also still getting used to us, it would be very hard to explain after just a day.” James put a slight influence on the last part of his sentence, causing the other two to nod in response.

“If I may, ladies,” Erik started, moving to stand beside the table and fill Suzu’s cup back up. “What brings you two here?” He made eye-contact with Suzu and while Mika couldn’t quite see Erik’s face Suzu’s tinted red.

“Well,” Naomi said in between sips. “We wanted to see how our friend was doing,” She looked to Mika and smiled, Mika, in turn, returning it. “Since it’s the weekend and all usually we hang out and chill.”

“Yeah like going to the arcade!” Suzu put in, pushing whatever emotion caused her to blush down.

“Or the Pink Lady café!”

Matthew couldn’t keep himself still at the news. “There’s an arcade?!” Suzu and Naomi looked up at him in confusion before getting their attention called back to James clearing his throat.

“That makes a lot of sense, ladies, and sounds like a very pleasant way to spend the weekend. We don’t wish to disturb you any further than we have, so we shall take our leave and start preparing the house.”

“Preparing for what?” Naomi asked, cocking her head to the side.

Mika spoke back up, “My parents decided that today would be a great day to have a house warming party tonight.” She couldn’t help the slight bitter emotion that slipped into her words.

“Tonight…? That’s so soon…”

“You’re telling me,” Mika mumbled into her tea.

“Well we can help out, can’t we Naomi?” Suzu asked, looking to her side at Naomi.

“I thought you wanted to go to the arcade?”

“Yeah, but this housewarming thing is more important.”

“We appreciate the offer, ladies. However, we can handle it.” James smiled and turned to Mika. “If you’d like to, miss, you can go out with your friends while we handle things here.”

Mika thought it over a minute, Damien and Sam sharing a quiet word together behind her. She wanted to go out, something easy going and fun in this sea of tumultuous waves showering her with the unknown. She feels like she’s standing on a rock in a storm and it is almost enough to push her off into the choppy waves below that will pull her under if she isn’t careful. Mika looked back at James, his eyes gave a sense of understanding, a firm ground to stand on and she knew that if she left everything would be okay regardless.

Another part of her fought that feeling too, it wouldn’t be right to go out and expect them to do this house warming party. It was for her parents she needed to help out in some way, did incubi have house warming parties? A smaller third part of her wondered what kind of parties incubi and succubi would have, and she quickly abandoned that train of thought. She looked back to her friends across the couch with an apologetic smile, “Go ahead without me, I’ll stay and help around the house.”

“Are you sure?” Matthew asked almost incredulously.

“I’m sure,” Mika said with a conviction she was surprised at. “It’s my housewarming party, the person who the party is for should be helping out with it.”

“Want us to help out as well?” Suzu tried again, Mika was grateful for her, for them both. She knew that if she asked they’d drop whatever it was, they were doing to be with her when she needed it.

“Thank you, but I think we’ve got it all taken care of.” In her mind, she’d already been divvying up the boys into what they’d be best suited for, something she’s sure James has already done as well.

“Well, then we’ll get going, so we’re not in the way.”

“Thanks a bunch for stopping by!” Mika said as they stood.

“It’s all good, Anderson.” Suzu laughed. “We’ll definitely swing by the housewarming party tonight!” At least some good will come out of the party tonight, Mika thought to herself as she walked them to the front door and let them outside with a promise that they would have a good chat the next day.

“Have you seen if they have any soul marks?” Suzu asked in a quiet voice, her eyes glinting with mischief.

“Suzu…!” Naomi scolded, “You can’t ask someone that! Especially when Mika’s only been with them for a day!”

Mika laughed awkwardly and patted their shoulders “It’s fine,” She assured them. “We’ll talk about it later.” With a begrudging affirmative they left allowing Mika to shut the door behind her, leaning against it.

She let out a sigh of relief as the boys filed in behind her. They moved back to the dining room and began making plans as to what needed to happen, the boys getting assigned different tasks around the house. The boys had everything covered, Damien was in charge of general cleanliness around the areas the party will be as well as marking off where party members can’t go, Sam was in charge of getting the front lawn ready for the inspection that would happen when everyone got there, Matthew was in charge of the cooking – nothing huge but there needed to be plenty of hors d’oeuvres for the guests. Erik was placed in charge of the dining room, setting up the table to act as a buffet table and as a sommelier for the party. That left James with the garden out back, where everyone would move to near the end of the party but would be open all through the night.

“Since we’re covered everywhere, Miss,” James said, looking over the list of chores needing to be done. “You have the option of helping one of us out.” He said with a smile.

Mika thought about it a moment before nodding to herself, “If that’s the case I’ll help you out in the garden.” The boys nodded and after lunch left to their individual tasks, Erik staying in the dining room to begin moving things around.

They headed out to the garden, Mika making a detour for where she remembered the shed to be and pulled out a pair of gloves for herself and James. He mentioned how handy it was to have a building like this to house all the gardening tools.

“Do demons not have gardens to tend?”

“Yes, however, I was not one of the ones who took care of any plants we had at the castle,” James answered. “So, if there was a shed I never saw it.” Mika hummed in thought, passing a watering can and other tools to him to hold. Whoever was doing the gardening here last needed to either be fired or re-hired, the garden in the back looked overgrown.

“James,” She started, finishing grabbing what she needed and leaving the shed. “How long have you been here if you’re so amazed by a shed?”

“About six months.” Came his immediate answer, walking alongside her back to the patio to deposit their load. “However, Miss, please remember that we were traveling for most of it and so we were never in one spot long enough to become very accustomed to how humans lived their day-to-day lives.”

“Coulda fooled me…” Mika muttered, pulling on her gloves and grabbing a spade. “I’ll start weeding the flower beds, do you know how to work a lawnmower?”

James shook his head, “No, however, I believe I can pick up how to do it easily enough.”

“Alright,” She tentatively said. “If you need help let me know.” If Mika was honest with herself, they both should be weeding the entire lawn, it undoubtedly needed it. However, there was not enough time to do that and still be ready for the party. Mika made a mental note to look into what she would need to keep this house maintained in an orderly fashion, a professional gardener was first on her list.

James simply nodded as ascent and went off, pulling out the electric mower and shrugging off his blazer. Mika turned her attention back to the flowerbeds, grateful to find that her grandfather had had a gardener in here at one point, there were very few weeds she actually needed to dig up. Every now and then she would lean up to stretch her back and look back to James, who by now had worked up a thin sheen of sweat. Just enough to make his white undershirt cling to his body and there were quite some times Mika felt her breath leave her.

His back muscles were just _divine_.

He was a scholar, she could tell that right off the bat, however, whoever his parents were gave him some magnificent genetics. Every now and then, however, she would look back over her shoulder – James was still somehow faster than her, more than likely due to his powers – and once they met eyes. Mika immediately felt her face heat up while James’ scrunched up in amusement. She quickly turned back to her work, digging her spade into shift the dirt around and pull up another weed, all the while muttering to herself. “What are you doing, Mika? He’s just a guy not like you need to behave like some insipid teenage love story around him…” She fumed at her word choice and cursed out loud when she failed to notice what she was doing and accidentally pulled up one of the flowers along the bed.

“Are you okay?” James' voice was far closer than it should have been and she startled, whirling around until she fell on her butt looking up at him and her mouth froze as she realized that he looked damned good from the front as well.  
Damned incubus and their powers.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine.” She said, face tinting red and looking back at the flower still pulled from the ground, James followed her gaze and then looked back to her with a rueful smile. “What?” She asked a bit sharper than she’d intended. “I just… Got to into weeding.”

James held his hands up in a placating matter. “Since I’m finished mowing I’ll help out if that’s alright with you?”

“Sure,” Mika said, sitting back on her knees. “You know how to weed?”

“You need to make sure you get the roots out along with the part we can see to prevent them from growing back.”

“Yup!” The pair worked in silence for a moment before Mika felt the need to break it. “So, James, do you like flowers?” She winced at the stupidity of the question but quickly looked to James as he chuckled deep in his chest.

“They have a wonderful aesthetic,” He said, digging in his own spade to loosen up a particularly troublesome weed. “Many people think that flowers are simple and rather boring. But I’ve learned secrets about flowers.” He looked over to her through his peripherals and winked, tinting her face red again.

“Secrets?” She tried to calm herself back down, his smile did things to her that were something she would appreciate not happening at the moment. She moved back to the flower she dug up, widening out the hole for it a bit before tucking it back in. “Like what?”

“Oh, that humans developed a language around flowers for one,” James said matter of factly. She vaguely remembered something about it but at the time gave no thought to it.

“That sounds interesting, do you know what these flowers mean?” She gestured to the orange daisies in front of her, James looking over to see what she was referring to.

He smiled as he looked from the flowers to her, “To be specific the flowers are a gerbera daisy, and all colors of the gerbera daisy have a different meaning.” He picked up his spade and went back to the patio to grab the watering can.

“Then what do the orange ones specifically mean?” Mika asked again, standing with him and bringing over the watering hose to fill the can up.

“Well, the orange color means ‘Sunshine of life.'” He looked at her when he said that and she felt something turn over in her stomach. James looked back to the can in his hands, motioning her to pull the hose out when it was full. “The other meanings all lean towards happiness or some form of cheerfulness.” He began watering the bright red roses on his side of the bed first.

She moved over to stand by him. “Then what do the others mean?”

“Well please understand, Miss, most colors tend to mean the same thing.” He motioned her to take over, slipping behind her to take her hand in his over the can and tilting it at the proper angle. “Yellow means cheerfulness, pink is admiration, white is purity…” He trailed off, letting her take over, letting his own hand trail on hers as he pulled away to fill up the second can. “And red stands for an unconscious or full immersion in love.” He quietly chuckled, standing at her daisies and watering them. “Humans have really attached love to the color red.” He muttered, moving to water the other flowers as well.

“Y-you seem to know an awful lot about gardening for someone who never has…” Mika said, almost desperate to change the subject by then.

“Of course,” he answered, looking over a bed of lilies with a scrutinizing eye. “Flowers need to be cared for gently, like a fragile life. Too much power and they’ll break, but too little and they’ll fade away.” His eyes glanced up and caught hers, and Mika found herself unable to look away. “It’s like caring for a pet, or a loved one.” He broke the gaze first, and Mika let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

They fell back into silence and moved along the edge of the house, watering the flowers, and Mika began to think back on the morning. The nightmare finally managed to leave (although she still felt that cold, cold place and the even colder piece of metal against her head), and then Suzu and Naomi’s sudden appearance and they’re subsequent teasing, and she was reminded of her father’s words.

About how it’s her grandfathers’ fault she doesn’t have a soul mark. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, still not understanding what he could mean by that. She glanced up at James for a moment before working up the courage to break the silence again.  
“James…?” He hummed in response, reaching above her to get at a plant that was further to the wall. “Do demons have soul marks?”

“Like you humans have?” He asked.

“You know about them?”

“We have been in this world for half a year.” He chuckled. “We’ve seen a few of our own and Damien found a few thoughts on it and coupled with a bit of research we learned quite a bit.”

“But do you have them too?” She cocked her head to the side in confusion as James shook his head.

“We do not, demons, incubi and succubi especially, were not necessarily made to love.” He seemed somber explaining this. “Our magic and how we are genetically designed make it unsuitable to have a soul mark.” He shrugged.

“That sounds lonely.”

“Only to a human that knows there’s one out there that has the best match for you regarding genetics.” James smiled at her. “For us, we don’t entirely care who we continue our legacy with.” He thought a moment before amending himself. “I should say, instead, that we do care, we do want someone powerful to carry on our genetic code, however…” He shrugged. “We don’t exactly care who that person ends up being.”

Mika frowned at his explanation. “So… None of you have soul marks?”

“No, Miss.”

“Have…” She started, feeling jittery about this next question. “Have you, while you all were traveling, found someone who didn’t have a mark…?”

James was quiet a moment at that, a thoughtful look crossing his face before shaking his head. “I can’t say that I have, Miss.”

Mika felt her stomach flop down into her bowels, of course, they wouldn’t, she was still alone in this world.

“But I wouldn’t take it to heart, Miss.” James continued, causing her to look up – when had she turned her head down? – “If you don’t have a mark that just means you need to find someone the old-fashioned way.” He winked at her, and she felt her ears heat up. “Besides, this way anyone can be your special person, you don’t have to feel like you should wait for the person with the same mark as you to stumble into your life. You can go out there and find someone of your very own.”

She’d considered that before, and part of her wanted to snap at him about how it wasn’t that easy, how people would want to know her mark before getting into anything serious with her, how they’d be confused at her lack of a mark, and then leave her for their actual soul-match once they found them. But another part of her reminded her that he’s only trying to cheer her up, and it is true. There are undoubtedly people who don’t care about their marks, who would get into a relationship with someone who wasn’t their match, there were stories of people like that all over.

“When did you find out?”

“You just admitted to it.” He answered with some amusement. “Again, I wouldn’t put too much worry into it, it does not change who you are as a person. And with or without a Soul Mark you are still a lovely, generous young woman whom I am grateful to have met.”

She turned her lips up with a smile. “Thank you, James.”

“Of course, Miss. My Pleasure.”

The silence that fell between them then felt lighter than it had all the times before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so the first question from everyone is gonna be "Val where were you????"
> 
> the answer my friends is that shit hit the fan in my life lmfao. breath of the wild came out when i had half this chapter written, followed by boyfriend to death 2, and then i had midterms for my masters' degree and c:
> 
> yea.  
> but i finished my midterms yesterday and managed to get out the other half of this chapter! yay!  
> hopefully i'll get on a proper updating schedule soon <33 i love you all and i love all the comments you deign to give this fic i treasure them all!


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